Aircraft interiors, especially those of large corporate jets, are often subject to extensive modifications of their interior to fit the needs of individual corporate clients. Aircraft interior designers often prefer to use doors which slide into pockets in the bulkhead because such doors are more aesthetically pleasing and will allow greater latitude of design. These doors are called "pocket doors" and consist of two segments which slide horizontally in a common sliding plane, which sliding plane is perpendicular to the floor of the aircraft interior. When the door is in a closed position, the door segments present a uniform plane parallel to the bulkhead into which they recess (the "pockets"), thereby giving the interior designer an unbroken plane on which to create designs. When the pocket door is in an open position, the door segments are recessed into the bulkhead pockets and the passengers can pass through.
However, Federal Aviation Administration regulations require doors of an aircraft interior to be capable of withstanding nondestructive blow-out. That is, if there is sudden decompression in one portion of the aircraft interior, the aircraft door must be capable of blowing out without shattering. The purpose of such nondestructive blow-out is to avoid injury to aircraft occupants by flying debris.
Presently, aircraft utilizing pocket doors contain blow-out panels whereby sections of the door segments are releasably retained to the door segments by means of lanyards.